Gemma & Emma Podcast - Fiona Lambert
Fiona Lambert is one of the UK’s leading businesswomen, currently Managing Director of Business Development at River Island, she just launched a new clothing brand called Harpenne. Her most exciting venture to date, Harpenne focus' on women who express a sense of style with personality. Fiona worked alongside Asda founder, George Davies to set up and launch George as the first fashion supermarket brand in 1990. This early experience fostered her love of creating and design. She was the Womenswear Product Director at Next for 7 years and returned to the George brand in June 2007 as George’s Brand Director. Fiona built a hugely successful career in the fashion industry over the last 30 years . Running all design aspects, buying and quality assurance of over 237 million George garments in almost 400 Asda stories and on George.com. Fiona’s leadership and expertise were instrumental in accelerating the brand. Fiona’s vision and passion for nurturing the next generation of British fashion talent led to George becoming title sponsors of Graduate Fashion Week for 5 years. Fiona has been a mentor to aspiring students for many years and was part of the coveted Gold Award judging panel. She successfully led the George Home launch with her expertise in customer focus, design, innovation and style, the teams have saw fantastic results growing sales and profit double digit and taking the brand to the third biggest home brand. In recognition of her passion and commitment to the customer and product development, Fiona’s remit was extended to cover the rest of Asda own label brands to develop a unique and compelling proposition for the whole of Asda. She then moved to be Product Director at Dunelm before taking her current role. She has won awards for mentoring, innovation and inspiring others including the first award for Inspirational Woman of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award at the Leicester Mercury Women in Business Awards, Mentor of the Year at Women of the Future Awards, Innovator of the Year at Everywoman in Retail and has a Special Recognition Award from Graduate Fashion Week. Find Fiona’s new brand here: https://harpenne.com/ Make sure to check Harpenne’s socials for giveaways this week! IG: @Harpenne Subscribe to The Gemma & Emma Podcast on iTunes: tinyurl.com/gemmaandemma Follow us on Instagram (@gemma_and_emma) www.instagram.com/gemma_and_emma/ Follow Emma Forbes (@emmaforbeslifestyle) and Gemma Sheppard (@sheppardstyle) This episode of The Gemma and Emma Podcast was recorded by Matthew Waltho and produced by Rebecca Huston. Music by Rebecca Huston.